Cloning is a big issue now. Many arguments are going on about cloning humans being immoral. But what is cloning? Cloning is one or more offspring from a single ancestor; the genetic composition from the ancestor is identical to the offspring. No sex is involved in the production of clones, and since sex is the normal means by which new genetic material is introduced during procreation, clones have no choice having the same genes as their only parent. A clone of cells refers to the descendants of a single parent cell. Tumours are actually clones too. They are derived from one cell that no longer obeys the normal rules of growth control.
Corals are another example of clones. Identical twins are even clones that are produced by splitting of a single embryo. So to keep it simple, members of a clone are genetically identical. Here is a diagram of how cloning is scientifically done. The benefits of cloning might include, building a mass army of look-alikes or recreating Einstein or Elvis. You could clone livestock for steady supplies of food. There is no guarantee that the first cloned human will be normal. The fetus might get some disorder or disability that cant be detectable by ultrasound. They might be born disabled. Disorders may show up later in their life.
Such problems have been seen in other cloned mammals, such as reproductive problems. There is no reason to that this wont happen in a humans case. Large scale cloning could eliminate genetic originality. It is diversity that causes evolution and adaptation. It prevents an entire species from disappearing because of a disease. The people out there who are childless because of a rare hereditary disease would be able to produce offspring that were genetically theirs. However, if the cloned sheep Dolly were anything to go by then less than one in a hundred success rate would cause many problems.
More importantly, it is quite possible that cloned individuals will turn out to be at risk. We do not yet know the long-term effects of making an old adult cell nucleus to begin a new life again in an egg. Two lesbians could have a child by adult DNA cloning rather than by artificial insemination. Each would be able to contribute part of their body to the fertilized ovum. One woman would donate the ovum, which contains some genetic material in its mitochondria, the other woman the nuclear genetic material. Both would have parts of their bodies in the conception.
